


Camp In

by HappyFunBallXD



Series: Red vs Babies AU [2]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Gen, Kid Fic, a bunch of others but those are the main ones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-30
Updated: 2014-12-30
Packaged: 2018-03-04 10:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3063698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyFunBallXD/pseuds/HappyFunBallXD
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day is over at the daycare, but there's still a pair of siblings waiting to go home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Camp In

Grif sat on the steps of the daycare, elbows on his knees and chin in his hands. Beside him, Kai sat, talking happily to Caboose about something, stickers or whatever, he really wasn't paying attention. His eyes were on the building's entrance, watching as the cars pulled in to pick up the children at the end of the day. Miss Shelia was on the black top, watching the cars as well, in between playing referee for the older kids' basketball game. 

It was later in the evening, already getting dark. Simmons told him that it gets dark earlier when it gets colder. And he already needed his big orange sweatshirt to be outside, so the sun was probably going down early now. Simmons was usually right about these kinds of things, even if Grif would never tell him that.

Kai giggled as she stuck a sticker to Caboose's cheek, a bright yellow duck. The boy beamed. Grif sighed, stuffing his small hands into the pockets of his sweatshirt. Tucker hopped down the stairs beside him, skipping the last two and looking particularly proud of himself for it. He grinned up at Grif, hands on his hips like he expected some sort of praise.

“That was cool, and you know it.”

“Big deal,” Grif rolled his eyes. “Wash skipped three yesterday.”

Tucker's eyes widened. “What? Then I'm gonna skip FOUR.”

“You're gonna break your neck,” came another voice. Simmons peeked his head out from the doorway, the bottom half of his face buried in a fluffy scarf. “Wash only skipped four cuz Maine was helping him. And Miss Sheila said that he was gonna break his neck.”

“So? It'd still be cool if I did it,” Tucker shrugged, looking at the fourth step like he was considering it.

“Don't do it, Tucker, Simmons'll tell on you if you try,” Grif curled up on the stair.

“I will not!” Simmons whined.

“You told on Church when he tried to sneak out during nap time,” Caboose spoke up, poking at the duck sticker on his cheek.

Simmons' face turned red, at least the part that could be seen. “That's cuz Church told on us when Grif tried to break into the snack closet!”

“Maybe he knew Grif wasn't gonna share,” Tucker countered. 

“Grif always shares,” Kai huffed, crossing her tiny arms. Her yellow windbreaker made a noise with the action.

“Yeah, with YOU!” Tucker hopped up on the fourth step. “You don't count, you're his kid sister. The rest of us would starve!”

“It's just snack,” Simmons sat down beside Grif. “You wouldn't starve. You'd just have to wait til dinner.”

“That's a long time!” Caboose looked worried. “Church is so little, he might die before dinner!”

Grif glared at the boy. “He wouldn't die. He'd just get mad. And he's always mad, so he'd just get madder.”

“The point is,” Tucker stuck a hand up, finger pointing to the sky. The sleeves of his jacket slid down his thin arm, bunching up around his elbow. “that I'm gonna jump four steps, Wash is gonna be so jealous, and YOU GUYS aren't gonna tell on me or else!”

“Or else what?” Kai stuck her tongue out.

“Or else I'm never bringing Junior to Show and Tell again.”

“Nobody cares about your dumb lizard,” Simmons grumbled.

Now it was Tucker's turn to stick his tongue out. He turned around, bending his knees and getting ready to jump to the bottom of the steps. His fists clenched at his sides, and he was gaining momentum to actually jump. But the moment before he could, a car door slammed in the parking lot, and a voice rang out.

“Lavernius Tucker, don't you dare jump off that step! You get down here into this car right now.”

Tucker stopped immediately, eyes wide as he looked up. “Oh crap.”

Grif snickered. “Busted.”

Tucker scrambled down the steps. “Coming, Mom!” 

The others watched him go, getting into the front seat of the car with his mom before she drove off. Caboose and Kai returned their attention to stickers, the boy sticking a gold star to Kai's forehead. Simmons kicked at a pebble on the stairs.

The Director left soon after, stepping out of his office and out the door, Carolina and Church following after. Caboose nearly tackled Church trying to give the other boy a hug. The Grifs and Simmons snickered as the dark- haired boy grumbled, disentangling himself to follow after his father and sister.

One by one, the kids of the daycare were picked up by their parents. The Dakota twins left, leaving the basketball game missing too many players to continue. Miss Sheila herded the rest of them toward the playground, where Wash was captured by the Pirate York, and Connie directed the rescue with the help of Maine and Florida. Their youngest friend was liberated just in time, as a few of the students were picked up right after. Luckily, Tex was picked up before she and Wyoming got into another fight. 

Caboose left with one of his older sisters, sticking one final sticker, which accidentally wound up in Kai's hair. Donut and Sarge had left earlier in the day, and all too soon, only Grif and Simmons remained from Red Class, and Kai from Blue. Most of the Freelancer kids were gone, York was pushing Wash on the merry-go-round that the blond had originally been terrified of, but had grown to like after some coaxing from Carolina.

While Miss Sheila was busy cleaning up the playground equipment, the rest of the children were collected by their respective parents. She shut the bin, ready to lock up and go home herself, when she caught sight of something moving on the steps. Grif was curled on the top step, frowning. Kai was beside him, her head leaning on her brother's leg as she fiddled with a notepad.

Grif looked up when he heard their caretaker let out a little sigh.

“Your mother's running a bit late again?”

Grif shrugged. “Probably.”

She offered a smile. “Why don't we go give her a call.”

The boy rolled his eyes, getting up and taking his sister's hand, following the adult inside. Miss Sheila went to the Director's office, looking up the Grifs' number and putting the phone between her ear and shoulder as she waited. Kai beamed up at her, while Grif stared at the floor, frown still on his face. After a minute or so, she hung up the phone.

“Well, she's not answering, so she's probably on her way.”

“Yeah, sure,” Grif mumbled, crossing his arms. 

Kai seemed content with the answer, leaving her brother's side to go sit at the craft table. They'd worked with construction paper and glitter that day, and Miss Sheila hadn't finished cleaning it all up, so there was some still left to play with. 

Seeing that they weren't leaving for awhile, Miss Sheila nodded, guiding Grif to join them at the table. He flopped down on a chair, but made no move to start a project, just folding his arms on the table and laying his head on them, watching his sister. Miss Sheila helped Kai cut out bits of paper, gluing them into something. 

Grif got bored after awhile, kicking his small legs under the table. He knew they weren't going anywhere soon, it wasn't the first time their mother had stayed at work too long. It was most of the reason they'd started coming to the daycare in the first place.

“I'm hungry,” he pouted, poking at a glue bottle.

“You're always hungry,” Kai replied, and Grif stuck his tongue out at her.

Miss Sheila looked at the watch on her wrist. “I suppose it's late enough, we could have a second snack.” She smiled secretively. “Just don't tell the others tomorrow, okay?”

They both nodded, Kai because she liked secrets, and Grif because he liked snacks. Miss Sheila left to the kitchen, and the two siblings stayed at the table. Kai dusted her project with glitter. Grif poked mercilessly at the glue bottle, even when it fell over. When the caretaker came back with a tray, both kids perked up. She set the tray down in the middle of the table, three glasses of milk and a plate of cookies on it. Not even Grif could be mad when there were chocolate chip cookies to be had.

After the snacks were finished, and the crafts were as glittered as they could get, Miss Sheila was at a loss. Grif was looking more and more grumpy as the time passed, and even Kai was starting to look restless. If there was one thing running a daycare had taught her, it's that distraction was the key to avoiding problems. 

She put her hands on her hips. “Well, I think we might be here for awhile.”

“Surprising no one,” Grif snapped, kicking at the chair leg. “We might as well just sleep here tonight.”

Kai's eyes widened, her caramel eyes brimming with tears. “Mom's not coming to get us?”

Miss Sheila went to scoop the girl up, but was interrupted by Grif jumping off his chair, stomping over to his sister. 

“You know how she is. She's gotta work really hard so we get taken care of. So it's our job to wait til she gets back, right?”

Kai nodded, scrubbing a hand over her eyes. 

“You wanna give her the picture you made, right?”

Another nod, as Kai's small fingers curled around her construction paper and glitter masterpiece.

“We just gotta be patient then, right? Mom'll come back when she can.”

Kai hopped off her chair, wrapping her arms around her brother in a hug. Miss Sheila watched, impressed. She knew that Grif was protective of his sister, but she'd never seen him comfort her before. Usually he was content to just yell at whoever was messing with her, and go about his business. To be fair, usually Grif was content to do as little as possible. 

But his first statement had given her an idea on how to pass the time.

“What do you two say to having a camp out?”

Kai peered up over her brother's shoulder. Grif just huffed.

“You can't camp out inside. The fire would set off the smoke alarm.”

“Well, we can't have a fire,” she amended, “but we can make a tent out of blankets, and have a flashlight fire.”

“Can we tell scary stories?” Kai asked.

“And roast marshmallows?” Grif tried.

Miss Sheila smiled. “We'll see.”

It didn't take long to get all the blankets out of the closet, and soon the three were arranging all the nap mats against the playroom wall. They covered their tent with blankets and settled inside, the flashlight in the middle of the floor between them. Miss Shelia found a bag of marshmallows in the snack cupboard, and although they couldn't roast them, it was good enough for Grif, who munched on them happily, making gooey faces at his sister, who launched into giggles.

It was late into the evening, and still no word from Ms. Grif, but the three of them were settled into their blanket tent. Grif told a scary story, something about a hunter being chased by a creature who wanted its tail back, and Kai screeched in a mix of excitement and fear, scrambling up into Miss Sheila's lap when he got to the end of it, yelling the final line of the creature as it caught the hunter.

It wasn't long after that Kai fell asleep, tired out from the excitement of the day. Grif finished off the marshmallows, playing with the flashlight idly. Miss Sheila checked her cellphone for any notification. Finding none, she decided it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to stay the night at the daycare. She would have come in early tomorrow anyway, getting the place ready for the half-day preschoolers to come in. It would just be a head start. She felt better about that than letting the two children go home alone.

“I suppose you're going to have to stay here tonight with me,” she told Grif, settling an extra blanket over Kai. 

Grif shrugged. “It's okay. At least it's fun when you're here too. Usually it's just me and Kai.”

“Does this happen often?”

“Not really,” he played with the light's handle. “But a few times. Sometimes she just doesn't make it home for the night. It's okay though. I get Kai and me ready for school, and she's always home again by the time we get home.”

He peered up at her, frowning. He didn't usually tell adults about how his family worked, worried that they'd try to do something about it and get his mom in trouble. But Miss Sheila had been really nice since they'd been in the daycare, so maybe if he acted like it wasn't a problem, she would be okay with it too.

Miss Sheila hummed in thought. She'd have to watch the pair carefully, before rushing to any conclusions. “Well, if we're staying tonight, we're going to need some dinner. You can't just eat marshmallows all day.” She smiled teasingly. “How about some grilled cheese sandwiches?”

Grif's face brightened, nodding happily. 

oOoOo

The preschoolers wandered in the next day, shortly after noon. It was quieter than normal, none of the usual chipper music playing. But the door was unlocked and Kimball had already left, dropping them off at the door and returning dutifully to her class before she'd join them after school. 

The four of them pooled into the doorway, confused. Usually Miss Sheila was waiting for them at the door, but she was nowhere to be found. Her car was in the parking lot, Jensen noticed, so they continued into the playroom.

Smith poked his head in first, followed by an eager Palomo. When they made curious noises, Jensen pushed past them to see for herself. Bitters followed, trying to look like he didn't care, no matter how curious he was.

There was a giant pile of naptime mats and blankets in the middle of the playroom, set up into a big tent. Palomo let out an excited yelp, running towards it and flopping into the pile.

His happy yell turned into a terrified screech when the pile started moving, and a blanket grabbed him around the waist. He waved to Bitters to help him, squirming against the blanket monster's hold. He was left to save himself, as Bitters and Jensen ducked behind Smith.

A head popped out from the pile of blankets, and the remaining preschoolers were surprised to see Miss Sheila, who seemed just as surprised to see them.

“What? Why are you four here so early?”

Jesen's head peeked out from Smith's arm. “It's not early Miss Sheila,” she replied, her usual lisp slurring her words a bit. “It's after noon.”

Miss Sheila blinked a few times, before sliding out from the ruined tent. She lifted the edge of a blanket, pulling out a sleepy looking Kai. Then she picked Palomo up, saving him from the monster under the blanket. He clung to her, watching as Grif scooted out.

“Grif! You scared me!”

“You jumped on me!” he shot back, crossing his arms and glaring up at the younger boy.

“Well, I suppose we slept in later than intended,” Miss Sheila sighed, setting Palomo down with the others. “Can't be helped. Why don't you all go play and I'll make us a snack.”

The preschoolers nodded, shuffling out. Kai rubbed at her eyes with a yawn, letting Grif take her hand and lead her out. Miss Sheila went to the kitchen to make snacks and call the Grifs' mother once again.

Bitters stared at Grif as he plopped down on a cushion. Stared at him until Grif stared back.

“What?”

“Did you guys stay over all night?”

Grif shrugged. “Maybe. We had a camp in. I told the best ghost stories and I got to eat marshmallows.”

Palomo's eyes widened. “That's so cool.”

Grif grinned. Maybe Simmons and Tucker would be jealous.


End file.
